Bad motor? Clicking and prop only turns one way — SOLVED

[mntnmike]

I have what I suspect is a bad motor, but it started at the tail end of an easy 5 minute flight. No crash, was doing a simple hover, and started hearing a higher pitch from the Phantom. When I brought it down lower, I could hear a rapid clicking sound.

Just as it landed and the props slowed down, I noticed that one prop would stop turning, and then start again. This repeated after stopping the motors, and then restarting. One prop would appear to seize, the start again.

The motor clicks loudly when I turn the prop in one direction (the direction the prop is supposed to turn), but locks up on something and doesn't turn the other direction.

This was only the fifth flight of this Phantom.

Here is a link to a video of the prop motor clicking and stopping, posted on Dropbox. If you turn the sound up a bit, you can hear the clicking clearly.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtf9kl6pbt8f0dx/BadMotor.mov

Before I open the Phantom to inspect the motor, any ideas or similar problems from anyone?

Thanks so much for the community support!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[BallisticPhantom]

Re: Bad motor? Clicking and prop only turns one direction

Pull the 4 screws to the motor and check to see that the Eclip and bushing are in place. The E-Clips they use are known to fall off. when they do they get sucked into the magnets and do fun stuff.

 

[jthorstad]

Re: Bad motor? Clicking and prop only turns one direction

Pull the 4 screws to the motor and check to see that the Eclip and bushing are in place. The E-Clips they use are known to fall off. when they do they get sucked into the magnets and do fun stuff.

This has happened to me TWICE in the two weeks I've had my phantom. The e-clips fall of and get stuck to the magnet. Been lucky both times; I found the clip in the motor and was able to reattach.

There was NO CRASH and no reason for them to come off.

 

[mntnmike]

Re: Bad motor? Clicking and prop only turns one direction

Solved. It wasn't a clip but a tiny screw, the size that hold the circuit board down. No idea where the screw came from as there are no screws missing. Ugh.